Gabrielle Fonrouge and Yaron Steinbuch
November 7, 2019
New York Post
E-cigarette behemoth Juul announced Thursday that it was pulling mint — the favorite flavor for many teens — off the shelves amid a growing vaping health crisis that has claimed dozens of lives and sickened thousands.
The move comes after the company last month stopped selling all fruity flavored products across the country.
Users have been unable to purchase vape pods that taste like mango and fruit — along with flavors such as creme brulee and cucumber.
Vapers can now only be able to buy products that taste like tobacco and menthol, the San Francisco-based company has said.
The ban on the sales will last at least until the Food and Drug Administration completes a safety review of the products, Juul has said.
The agency recently said it planned to pull all flavored vapes off store shelves so the products can undergo a more rigorous testing process.
Juul said it was yanking products in anticipation of the government’s review, which could last a few months or more than a year, administration sources previously told The Post.
The decision to suspend flavored sales comes amid a nationwide vaping crisis that has claimed at least 33 lives and injured nearly 1,500 others as of Oct. 15, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC has said the main culprit behind the illnesses are black market THC vapes, but the crisis has brought renewed focus to the issue of youth smoking flavored e-cigarettes.
A government report surveying nearly 20,000 young people found Juul is the preferred brand for 60 percent of high school e-cigarette users, according to ABC News.
Most of them used flavored e-cigarettes and among those who did, almost 60 percent favored mint or menthol.
A study led by the University of Southern California researchers suggests menthol doesn’t have the same appeal as mint.
The study found that mint was the most popular flavor among Juul users in the 10th and 12th grades.
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